


Tired

by spacedaydreamer



Series: safe end!vlr au [7]
Category: Zero Escape (Video Games), Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward - Fandom
Genre: Gen, safe end!junpei au, safe end!vlr au, time for a new timeline!, warnings for suicidal thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-04 04:40:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11547678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacedaydreamer/pseuds/spacedaydreamer
Summary: Junpei found that he was growing tired. With everything that was happening, he was simply... tired.





	1. Chapter 1

_“C…Carlos? What are you…. wait!”_

Junpei’s eyes opened in a panic, his breath shaking as Sigma grabbed tightly onto his wrist and started pulling him in the direction of the yellow door. With a few stumbles he began to run along behind him and Phi, looking around in confusion- he was… in the warehouse? Just what exactly…

Seemingly oblivious to his confusion (or perhaps just not willing to deal with it), Sigma basically threw him though the door at the last moment, causing Junpei to slam into it. He gasped for air, looking around the little room.

“Man, are you alright? You’re looking _seriously_ out of it.” Sigma was frowning in concern, staring at him the best he could with one eye. “Do you need a moment to catch your breath, or something? You just started spacing out there…”

“Y…yeah. Just, give me a moment…”

Phi seemed disinterested with him, and Sigma continued to watch him with a somewhat worried look on his face, but Junpei ignored them both in favour of looking at his bracelet. He was a… green solo? Then why had… what had that been? The image of him plunging the knife into his chest was so vivid, that it had almost felt _real_ \- but that was impossible. After all, he was alive right here and now. The thought that it could be something to do with esper stuff _did_ cross his mind… but that was impossible. Sure, he’d never been able to get a complete grip on his abilities, but things hadn’t been that bad for him in ages. It was incredibly unlikely that it could’ve been something like that…

Well, standing around and thinking would get him nowhere. They needed to keep moving forwards and get through whatever room awaited them- with that in mind, Junpei straightened up and nodded his head.

“I’m better now, we can keep moving. Sorry about that.”

Neither Sigma nor Phi seemed to know how to really react, both backing up a bit as he took the lead. The next door they entered had a plate over it, reading infirmary… they entered, and it was more or less what it’d said on the plate.

“So, this is it?” The place was very simple and fairly sparsely stocked, but it was still a million times better than anything they had on earth. There were all sorts of medications that he hadn’t seen around in decades, medications that could’ve easily saved the lives of many people… his eye caught on a bottle of ASA, and his face fell. “Damn bastards…”

“Huh?”

“Oh, it’s nothing.” He quickly brushed off Phi’s comment, ignoring her raised eyebrow. It was certainly not nothing, but unfortunately it was something that he absolutely could not explain, no matter what. “Anyways, we should probably start looking around.”

“Wait, wait! Why would there be an infirmary here, right beside a warehouse?”

Phi was unimpressed by Sigma’s question, rolling her eyes and sighing.

“It’s probably here in case any of the workers get hurt. You saw the size of that place, there’s probably supposed to be _tons_ of people who’re supposed to work here. You’d want the infirmary to be somewhere convenient, in case anything happened.”

“Oh… so then, this is a _work_ facility?”

“Up until recently, probably. Judging by the lack of dust, there were still people coming and going around here for quite some time.” Shrugging, she shook her head and crossed her arms. “Are you done, now? If so, then let’s get moving. We need to find a way out of here.”

Sigma had no more protests, so they split up to search.

There was a decent amount of stuff that looked useful around the room, but not much that seemed helpful in terms of puzzles. He _wanted_ to start pocketing the medicines to bring back to earth, but he knew _that_ was off the table- if they didn’t think that it was weird for an old man to be grabbing a bunch of bottles, then they’d probably assume he was some sort of addict and try to restrain him. Obviously, getting restrained was _not_ a good thing- so he held back, and did nothing to the bottles.

They continued to look around the room, each of them taking a different area. Junpei was walking around to check up on Sigma, when he noticed that he was poking one of the pillows on one of the beds over and over. He seemed pretty caught up in it, too… he was even muttering about the pillow’s softness.

“You look pretty tired, do you want to share it?”

“Wh-Wh-What?!”

Sigma turned around, clearly not having expected the quip.

“I was saying, if you’re that tired then we could share the pillow.”

“N-No! No way, definitely _not!_ ”

Jeez, that was a harsh rejection. Well, Junpei _had_ only been joking around… but still, that was pretty damn harsh. You could hurt a man’s feelings like that. With a shrug, he laughed off his own comments and went back to looking around the room. The search went smoothly after that, with Sigma still continuing to act like his weird self, until they were finally able to get the password to the safe.

Upon opening, they found a good deal of stuff inside. There was a map of the floor, those key cards they needed, a note of supplementary rules that was filled with more infuriating rabbit puns, and… a newspaper.

Junpei quickly handed the last part off to Sigma, not wanting to read it. The paper was clearly a copy, it didn’t have the aging that would be expected on it- but that wasn’t why he hadn’t wanted to hold it. He hadn’t wanted to hold it… because he could remember that exact article.

“Radical-6 Infection Spreads, Cure Continues to Elude Authorities.”

It was an article from before the reactor explosions, probably around February of that year. The death toll according to the article was only at 100,000… if _only_ it had stopped there. Looking back, there was a special kind of hopelessness within the article… people had still believed that the virus could be contained. They’d still thought that quarantine zones were helpful, and they’d still thought that a cure could be produced in time.

Oh, they’d made a cure _eventually_. The name escaped him for the moment, but he’d heard that they’d found a cure- on the moon, of course. It wasn’t anywhere on earth, even though that was where the infection was still the worst. It wasn’t on earth, because the people in the moon simply didn’t care. They were probably planning on waiting until everyone there was dead, so they could come back later when it was safe.

Bastards.

He was glad that Phi cut off any conversation about the article before it could start, picking up the key and urging them towards the door. Sigma seemed reluctant, but tucked the clipping into his pocket- there really wasn’t any time to waste, and there was no reason to wait around here. They exited into a hallway, and walked until they found an elevator. It seemed like it was working, and they were just about to activate it; before the rest of their group appeared through the doorway.

The reunion was quick, as was their basically unanimous decision to check out what was beyond the elevator. All they found were chromatic doors, however, so they decided to instead simply head back to the warehouse. The only time he stopped was when they headed back through the  infirmary- Quark was sure to mention how it’d had a good stock of alcohol, including some scotch. He ruffled the boy’s hair, chuckling. It was certainly not the time for drinking, but he couldn’t help but have his spirits lifted just a little bit by how well Quark seemed to be doing.

Zero was waiting for them back at the warehouse, explaining rules that felt strangely familiar and urging them to go to the AB rooms. There was no real reason to refuse, so they did as he said- Junpei had been just about to enter his, when he heard a scream.

“Sigma? Hey, what happened-“

His voice stopped cold when he saw the body. He didn’t even have to be rolled over to see the face- Junpei simply _knew_. He already knew that this was Aoi, he knew that he was dead, and he didn’t know why.

_“A-Aoi… I… I’m sorry, I… I never meant to cause you pain. I… I never thought that it would bring you pain at all…”_

_“What are you saying, Junpei?”_

_“I just… I figured you’d be happy to see me dead. I mean, I ruined your life…”_

_“Junpei… I would never want to see you dead. I know, last time things didn’t go well, but… I don’t hate you. I could never hate you. You’re important to me…”_

_“Aoi, uh… this… just take it.”_

_“Junpei, it’s…”_

_“I’m, uh.. I’m not really good at picking gifts, but apparently amethyst is good luck. And, It reminded me of Akane’s eyes… I thought it would be nice for you.”_

_“Junpei… thank you. I love it.”_

Involuntary tears started to well up, and Junpei felt his heart beginning to break. He didn’t know what that memory was from, he didn’t know when it had happened, or why he’d forgotten it, but he’d given Aoi that choker. He’d given him that gift, and Aoi hadn’t hated him… and after all that, here he was, dead.

“Carlos? Carlos, sir, are you-“

“ _Don’t call me that._ ”

Sigma jumped back at the force of Junpei’s words, clearly not expecting it.

“I-I’m… sorry? Look, everyone else’s gone to the infirmary…”

After a moment of looking around, he realized it was true- him and Sigma were the only ones left. He’d been too out of it to even realize what had happened… shit, he’d probably scared the hell out of Quark, too.

“Uh… Sir? Look, are you alright?”

“I’m fine. And just… call me Tenmyouji. You’re not allowed to call me… that. None of you are.”

It must’ve seemed strange from Sigma’s point of view, but Junpei didn’t care. Even if it was risky, he’d take that risk. He couldn’t stand the idea of them calling him Carlos anymore- it was rubbing it all in. Everyone he’d ever loved, everyone who’d ever loved him… all of them had died. Being called ‘Carlos’ was like some sort of cruel joke, like they were all pointing out the fact that he was dead, just like Aoi, and that apparently it was impossible for Junpei to ever have anything even somewhat resembling a functional relationship.

“Uhhm… okay?”

Seeing his confused acceptance, Junpei shrugged and started walking towards the infirmary. Towards Aoi.

* * *

Almost as soon as he got there, Quark ran up to him and pulled him around behind the screen dividing the middle. It was clear from one look on his face that he was worried, and Junpei didn’t blame him. No, he simply felt horrible for making Quark worried. It seemed like the boy paused a moment in consideration, before eventually wrapping his arms around Junpei in a tight hug, squeezing him with as much strength as he could muster.

“Hey there, it’s okay. I’m okay, Quark. I’m fine.” He forced a smile onto his face, crouching down so he could look him right in the eye. “I’m sorry. I was just tired, and I got distracted a little. I didn’t mean to make you worry, alright?”

“Okay… but are you really sure about that, Grandpa? You’re fine?”

“Yes, Quark. I’m fine, I promise.”

He patted the boy on the shoulder, trying to reassure him the best he could, and then moved back to the other side of the divider. It seemed that Sigma had filled them all in on his ‘request’, and they were all eyeing him with varying degrees of suspicion or worry, but he didn’t care. From there, it was just arguments and confusion, before they eventually made their ways back to the AB rooms- they couldn’t just stay there, after all.

By the time he entered the AB room, he was too tired to care much about anything. He wanted to get angry, he wanted to yell at Zero and demand an explanation, but he knew that he wouldn’t get anything. He knew that it was pointless, so he simply waited and listened to the explanation, before turning to the screen.

His vote was obvious, really. There was only one pick that made sense- betray. He had no reason to trust Phi or Sigma, and honestly? He had a feeling that Phi would be urging Sigma to pick betray. She seemed cold like that, and Sigma was acting like a gullible fool. He was too soft- it’d be easy for Phi to convince him to pick betray, which meant the only logical choice was for him to pick betray as well.


	2. Chapter 2

Junpei’s walk to the screen was slow and heavy, and he found that he wasn’t as surprised by the results as he should’ve been. Quark was up to six points now, and he was as well… that was good. What _wasn’t_ good though, was Sigma’s reaction. He looked so _hurt_ …

“Sigma, Phi… I’m sorry.”

“Tenmyouji… I _trusted_ you.”

“Look, I _said_ I was sorry.”

It wasn’t good enough, but he really didn’t know what else to do. The logical move was to betray, wasn’t it? Who would actually be foolish enough to pick ally in a situation like _this_? You’d have to be a gullible idiot…

“See? I told you- a soft heart is the easiest to break. Do you understand what kind of game this is, now?”

Phi was unamused with them both, her arms crossed.

“…just tell me one thing, Tenmyouji. Why’d you do it?”

“Are you kidding me? Who would pick ally? That’s just _asking_ for trouble. Besides- someone’s dead. And not just _dead_ \- he was _murdered_. I have _no reason_ to think that the murderer wasn’t one of you.”

A voice that the back of his mind told him that wasn’t true- that he did indeed have a reason to know that it wasn’t them, but he had no reason to listen to it.

“Right, well… I think that’s enough for me. I’m old.. and I’m tired.”

He went off to stand by himself, and he found himself joined by Quark after their team seemed to have an argument as well. Zero ran them through the rest of the rules that he’d so graciously ‘forgotten’ to mention, but it all felt… familiar to him. Like he’d heard it all before.

After a while, they all decided to simply split up and search the rooms again. There was always the chance that they might’ve missed something- and Junpei had something he wanted to take a look at.

He made his way to the infirmary, quick to look at Aoi’s body before anyone else got there. Upon arrival, he found what he was looking for, yet couldn’t have possibly known existed- a gap in the blood on his wrist.

Aoi had been wearing a bracelet.

Strange coincidences were beginning to pile up at this point. In all honesty, it was far too much for him to just discredit- as much as he _wanted_ to, the likelihood of all this strange knowledge being a result of the morphogenetic fields was just too high.

But _why_ of _all times_ , would _he_ be getting memories like this now?

He was deep in pondering that question, when Sigma entered the room.

“Oh, hey. Didn’t expect to see you here.”

“…?”

“What, are you looking to kill me?”

“Wh-Why would I want to do that?”

“As revenge- I betrayed you and Phi. I’m the reason you guys are down to one BP.”

“That’s… no, that’s hardly a reason to _kill_ you.”

“….maybe.”

Regardless of his own words, Junpei’s heart felt heavy. He knew the feeling all too well… it was _guilt_. He felt guilty over his actions… over putting them at risk.

If it had just been Sigma, Junpei might not have felt so guilty. Sigma was old like him, and despite how completely impossibly weird he was acting, he’d lived through this world as well. Phi, on the other hand- somehow, she’d managed to stay young. She was still young, she had a whole long life ahead of her… and Junpei had put that at risk.

How selfish of him…

“Say, uh… Tenmyouji?”

“Yeah?”

“Why did you suddenly tell me to call you that? Like, I told all the others about the change, but…”

“It’s just… Tenmyouji is my last name. I’m not close enough to any of you for you to be able to use my _first_ name.”

“Is that so…” Sigma didn’t seem to entirely buy the excuse, but Junpei didn’t have anything more to offer. “What about Quark, then? He calls you grandpa, isn’t that a bit weird for a kid you just met?”

“We… didn’t just meet. Quark is my grandson.”

“H-he is? But, well… I mean, you guys… you don’t exactly look… alike…”

“He’s adopted, if that’s what you’re trying to get at.”

“Oh?”

“Yep.”

Sigma looked like he wanted to prompt for more information, but thought better of it. After a moment he folded his arms, and looked around the room.

“Where is he, anyways?”

“Oh, um…”

Sigma started looking around the room, going in behind the divider- and once he did, he immediately started yelling.

“Tenmyouji, what the hell?! You let Quark go back here?”

Junpei hadn’t even realized that the boy was in the room, let alone over by Aoi’s body. He quickly pulled his son away, checking to make sure he was alright- his eyes looked glassy and distant, and he felt fear pull at his heart.

It couldn’t be- no. No, no. It definitely wasn’t.

“Look, man… what happened? You’ve been acting so weird ever since we found that man’s body…”

“I’m- _I’m_ acting weird?! It’s all of _you_ who’re acting weird- you guys are just galivanting around like nothing’s wrong, and we found a _dead body!_ I bet some of you already forgot he’s in here…”

“Well, I mean, we’re all a bit focused on getting out…”

“If you’re trying to _survive_ , then doesn’t it make sense to find his murderer?”

“What does that have to do with it?”

“Isn’t it _obvious?_ Look, I’d bet a pound of neodymium that the killer is Zero Senior. Doesn’t that just make sense?”

“I… suppose it does…” His words seemed to have finally broken through to Sigma, who folded his arms in careful consideration. However, after a moment it looked like the progress had been lost. “But still, we shouldn’t go around pointing fingers. If we’re all going to get out, we need to _trust_ each other.”

“Interesting words from a man who just got betrayed.”

“Tenmyouji…”

Junpei sighed heavily, allowing himself to get caught up in thoughts once more- but this time, he was brought back to reality by Quark tugging on his sleeve. He’d managed to forget that he was there once again- why had he been so quiet?

_The answer nagged at the back of his mind, but he ignored it. It couldn’t be true._

“G…Grandpa…?”

“Yeah, Quark? What is it, bud?”

“Nothing… my head just… feels real funny…”

He was careful not to bite his lip or give any indication of his nerves, instead checking Quark for all signs of a fever or sickness. He _seemed_ fine, but… no. He had to ignore those thoughts.

“Grandpa, you don’t… don’t worry so much. It’s going away now…”

“Okay… but if you start feeling like that again, I want you to tell me. Tell me right away, okay Quark?”

“Okay, grandpa…”

“Well, uh… I think I’m gonna go check on the others. You keep an eye on Quark there, okay Tenmyouji?”

“Hah, like I need _you_ to tell me that.”

Sigma chuckled to himself, leaving the room to only Junpei and Quark. Now that they were alone, Junpei knelt down beside the boy, checking him over again more carefully.

“Grandpa, stop it. You’re getting worried over nothing.”

“Are you sure? Quark… you haven’t been having any weird thoughts at all, have you?”

“What? What do you mean?”

“Like…” Junpei’s voice stopped in his throat, and he shook his head. “No, it’s nothing. Nevermind. Let’s just keep looking.”

“Okay…”

The two of them continued to search the room, but Junpei was keeping a careful eye on his son. He seemed to be doing well enough… until out of the blue, he collapsed.

“No…. _no…._ ”

Junpei immediately picked him up, sprinting out of the infirmary to find Luna. The search took longer than he wanted, and he had to go all over- but he eventually found her in the lounge, and they all ran back to the infirmary as a group.

The scan took minutes, and Junpei tried to make sense of the words that flew across the screen of the ADAM… but they broke his heart.

Quark had radical-6.

He didn’t know how he’d contracted it. He had no idea how he’d come in contact with the virus, or if some sick bastard had decided to infect his son for fun- but Quark was just a child. He was just a _child_ , and he was infected with that _horrible_ virus… worst of all, though, was the fact that Junpei felt like he’d already known. He’d known, and he’d simply ignored the signs because he hadn’t wanted to accept that truth.

“Oh… oh god, no… please, no…”

Junpei collapsed to his knees, all of his strength gone. This was… it was too cruel. Quark was just a boy, he didn’t deserve this… he didn’t deserve that _horrible_ virus. He was going to die… he was… going to _kill himself._ In all honesty, Junpei didn’t think he could live through that- he couldn’t watch his son commit suicide. It was just too much.

He heard shuffling, and he saw him get up- his heart raised for just a moment, until he saw the look on his face. In his hand was the scalpel, clutched tightly and quivering slightly…

“Quark…”

“Grandpa…?” He looked at him, but his eyes were hollow and empty. Sweat beaded and dripped from his forehead, and his arms were shaking- anyone could tell from one look that he was not well. “Sorry… Grandpa… I… I can’t… I… I have to… escape…”

“Quark? Quark, please, just _calm down-_ “

“ _No!_ ” Quark swung the scalpel wildly as Junpei attempted to reach forwards, catching his finger and making him wince in pain. “ _I have to escape!_ ”

In the moment when Junpei winced backwards, Quark took action. He lifted the scalpel up, up, up, and then began to bring it down, down, down towards his chest. Junpei wanted to close his eyes, to look away, to do _anything_ that would stop him from watching his son commit suicide- but he couldn’t. He couldn’t look away.

“ _Stop!_ ”

“ _No! No! **Let go of me!** Let **go** of me, you **bastard!**_ ”

He felt like he was lucid dreaming, or something to that effect. Sigma had moved before anyone else, pinning Quark down to the bed of the scanner and wrestling with him for the scalpel. He wanted to move, to do _anything_ to help, but his body was frozen- he couldn’t. he simply couldn’t.

“Can _someone_ get this away from him?!”

Junpei wasn’t sure who it was that took the scalpel, nor was he sure when Luna injected Quark with the soporil. Everything was numb, and blurry, and… Quark was… he was…

Everyone in the room was talking, but Junpei hardly paid them any mind. He only spoke when Sigma spoke directly to him, blinking a few times to clear himself, before nodding and following after- they were out of time.

By the time they reached the doors, everyone had devolved into arguments. Nobody wanted to go with anybody else, and Junpei had to admit that he trusted _none_ of them to be with Quark- but he didn’t have a damn choice. Causing another argument would just waste more time, and then they’d _all_ die. Cutting into the middle of the spat, Junpei’s voice was harsh and low, and filled with worry.

“Look we don’t have time for any more of this. Just… Sigma. You picked the first time, you pick again.”

“Wh-what?”

“Just _pick_.”

“I… alright.”

Shutting his eyes for a moment, Sigma took a deep breath, and began to speak—

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, here we are! This one's taken a while to write, just because these middle parts feel a lot the same- I didn't want to make the text all exactly alike, so I ended up spending a lot of time on figuring out differences that I could put in. After all, the games have a skip function, but fanfiction doesn't! xD
> 
> As always, thank you so much for reading. You guys are the ones who give me the motivation to keep going with this series- and now we're almost halfway done!


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